Today in Digital Marketing - What Your Best Sellers Will Be in a Global Recession

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Tuesday, September 27th. I'm Todd Maffin. Today, Shopify bets long on bricks and mortar. Instagram backs away from online shopping and opens the door to DM spam. What people buy more of during a recession and in-house or outsourced SEO. Who wins the debate? Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. E-commerce giant Shopify is coming for bricks and mortar merchants in an effort to recover from its aggressive, and some analysts say overplayed bet, on how fast the post-pandemic economy would move online.

Starting point is 00:00:35 The company today announcing a new point-of-sale hardware system, squarely taking aim at, well, Square. Previously, merchants could access the platform's POS system by downloading an app. Now, Shopify's new device, which they call POS Go, lets merchants provide wireless checkout anywhere with a handheld tool. They'll also get access to more data than they did with Shopify's app-based system in the past. Data like sales history and information for specific customers, live sales and analytics. And this is kind of neat. Retailers can also build carts in store and then email them to customers for them to complete later. The new tool comes as more customers shop in person rather than online ahead of the holiday season.

Starting point is 00:01:19 The Financial Post reports that the company has been expanding its offline offerings to leverage its millions of e-commerce merchants. An analyst told the Post, quote, It sounds like it's proving to be fairly successful, and that's helping boost growth a little bit here, but not in a needle-moving way, as the vast majority of Shopify's revenue comes from e-commerce, unquote. The company says that in the first half of the year, sales made by merchants that used Shopify's core POS product grew 60%. While Shopify embraces more e-commerce, Instagram's pivot away from e-commerce is underway. A couple of weeks ago, we reported the company planned to retreat from the shopping features in the app as it focused on short-form video and ad revenue. Now the platform is officially testing app designs without a shopping tab. Some Instagram users have noticed recently that the tab has been replaced by a notifications tab in the bottom navigation bar.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Meanwhile, shopping has been moved to a second menu, tucked away among options like settings and saved posts. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the changes as part of a limited test. Quoting The Verge, For the past few years, Instagram has added features like the Shop tab in an effort to make the platform a place where users buy the products they see on their feed without leaving the app. And though plenty of users use Instagram as a way to discover new brands and products, it's unclear how successful the shopping page ever was.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Worried that your followers aren't seeing your brand's Instagram content? Just blast them through DM. The platform is testing a workflow that will let brands and social media managers ensure their content reaches their audience by sending it via direct message. With the tool, you could send broad-reaching marketing messages to consumers who follow you on the app, like product launches, sales, promotions, events, and so on. But of course, this could just end up as a new way to blast spam. It wouldn't be the first time a feature like this has been exploited.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Social Media Today points out that when LinkedIn first launched its long-form publishing platform, spammers loved it because every time you saved a new post, all of your LinkedIn followers would get a notification in the app, making it easy to reach a large audience for free. After spammers caught on, LinkedIn had to limit notifications to stop people from misusing it as a blast option. Quoting social media today, you can imagine the same happening on Instagram, which could make those message notifications get real old, real fast. I assume Meta has a solution in mind for this, which would restrict potential misuse. But then again, as it desperately looks for anything to keep people active in the app, it wouldn't be surprising to see them roll it out, then deal with the consequences,

Starting point is 00:04:05 unquote. Or here's an idea. Any chance you could just give us our organic reach back? You know, asking for a friend. There's a great piece up today on Insider Intelligence that looks at how consumers' behavior changes during times of financial stress. Many changes in shopping behaviors occurred during the last Great Recession as a result of unemployment, declining housing values, and general uncertainty, but some of the changes were unexpected.

Starting point is 00:04:35 The article suggests how we can learn from those shifting behaviors ahead of the looming reception. For example, services were most affected by the retreat. Durable and non-durable goods consumptions declined during the Great Recession, but service consumption declined the most. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, consumers have been spending more on experiences rather than goods. Second, economic downturns increase spending on small luxuries. For example, while cosmetics prices increased during the Great Recession, many U.S. women purchased cosmetics as a small comfort item rather than cutting luxury spending altogether.

Starting point is 00:05:25 What consumers consider small luxury items today will, of course, differ, but the article suggests that their behavior will remain the same. Instead of buying big ticket items or paying for services, consumers will turn to small luxuries. Companies and brands that are sensitive to consumer spending will be able to best serve those seeking small comforts. When it comes to unemployment, research on the great recessions of the past found that people spent considerable time on leisure while unemployed. According to research, when unemployed, about half of the lost work hours were devoted to home production, so products that benefited cooking, cleaning, laundry, and so on. While leisure accounted for the other half of consumers' time, most of it was spent sleeping and watching TV.

Starting point is 00:06:01 Time spent on shopping, child care, education, and health also increased. And as a result of the extra non-working hours, brands and businesses have the opportunity to provide consumers with affordable leisure activities like education and training opportunities, as well as health and wellness products. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com.

Starting point is 00:06:44 Be protected. Be Zen. Customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. When it comes to managing SEO, there's always the question of, should I hire in-house or outsource? On one hand, investing in an in-house team can have a lot of advantages, like building specialized talent, having more control over performance, increased productivity and brand and process alignment. Outsourcing to an agency,

Starting point is 00:07:10 though, also has its perks, most of which lower marketing costs and overheads and leaving it to more specialized professionals. So how do you find the right fit for your business? According to a recent article from Search Engine Watch, the truth is that the best solution, as always, is somewhere in the middle. That middle ground includes hiring an SEO manager who has thorough SEO knowledge, and then letting that manager find companies and freelancers to outsource different moving parts to. Quoting the piece, this means having an SEO manager who is brilliant at both SEO and project management. Yes, it will take time to find the right person, but finding the right person is never easy. In reality, you want your SEO strategy to deliver results? You need both an internal person or a team and someone outside your company to rely on.

Starting point is 00:07:54 This is not a question of choosing one, unquote. Anyway, the piece is definitely worth a read. If this interests you, it's in searchenginewatch.com today. Look for the article called In-House SEO vs. Outsourced Agency Talent. Twitter really wants your brand to build communities on its platform. According to screenshots leaked from an app researcher, Twitter is testing a new community spotlight option for professional profiles, which would let you display a chosen community directly on your brand's profiles. These professional profiles already provide brands and businesses with a range

Starting point is 00:08:29 of display options on their profile, like business categories, location listings, additional contact information, and so on. Also under development is a customized link display option, which lets you choose from various preset calls to action to appear as a button on your profile. One of the biggest players in the retail space has thrown a tentative vote of confidence behind the metaverse. But once again, it's not Zuckerberg's version that's getting the vote. Walmart is building two virtual islands inside the game platform Roblox. The islands will offer online music events, dressing rooms for avatars, and a bunch of small games. This is the largest retail brand to try its hand

Starting point is 00:09:11 at Roblox, which is leaning heavily into the metaverse trend. Walmart says it's only setting up shop there as an experiment, a statement you should absolutely not believe. And it's only being said in case they decide to pull out later. but rest assured, they are dumping a lot of resources into this. One thing they're not building in, actual commerce. While people inside the world will be able to buy virtual clothing that aligns with Walmart's real-world inventory, the shop will only accept a special in-game currency that can only be acquired by playing games. Walmart's been pretty aggressive in trying to reach young consumers. They've tried shopping live streams on various social platforms and launched a kind of AR-based

Starting point is 00:09:51 tech that lets people superimpose clothing items on photos of their bodies. They've also got a couple of patent applications focused on metaverse things, though it's not clear if those patents are in use for this Roblox initiative. Other brands in that world, Forever 21, The Gap, and Paxson. Roblox says it has more than 52 million users, most of them young. Don't forget the premium version of this podcast. It's just like this one, but with no ads. Access to deep dive weekend episodes, story links in the show notes, audio chapters that let you jump between stories and more. Go to todayindigital.com slash premium feed or tap the link in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:10:31 Or if you want, you can get this podcast as a daily email newsletter too, complete with images, related videos, links to dive deeper. And there's a free tier as well. You will get an issue every Friday on that. The newsletter comes out about an hour before the podcast drops. Just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter to sign up or tap the link in the show notes. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:11:06 See you tomorrow. I told him we were making data. Now when the believers between us, if you move like that, I make a move right back. If you move like that, I make a move right back. Oh, if you move like that, I make a move right back.

Today in Digital Marketing - What Your Best Sellers Will Be in a Global Recession

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